


Dance with me?

by Ra_chelB



Category: Queen (Band)
Genre: Dancing, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Married Couple, Memories, Music, Old Married Couple, References to Depression, Slow Dancing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-13
Updated: 2020-03-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:46:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23133391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ra_chelB/pseuds/Ra_chelB
Summary: Based on an OTP prompt I wrote some days ago: Nowadays is Ronnie the one who randomly takes his hand and makes him slow dance with her around the house, just to lift his mood. Because she knows he still loves to dance and sometimes she wants -she needs- to see his smile and hold him close.
Relationships: John Deacon/Veronica Tetzlaff
Comments: 10
Kudos: 27





	Dance with me?

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote purely to lift up my mood after a very bad and stressing day, I hope it’ll raise a smile on you faces too. Remember this is just a work of fiction, I just wish them all the happiness in this world.

There was absolutely no reason to go outside. Not with that pouring rain that was stabbing their garden and soaking the street, making their roof roar above their heads. 

Veronica chose it as a good day to reorder a bit the living room, putting books at their place in the bookshelf and taking off the dust from the tv. It was off anyway, as John was filling pages and pages of a sudoku book. 

It became his most recent passion, _“it keeps my brain at work”_ he used to say, and he was also pretty good at them. He tried to teach Ronnie how to do it, but she still couldn’t stand numbers and preferred crosswords instead. 

She picked up a toy that was left on the carpet by one of their grandkids and shook her head as she put it into the toys’ box. 

The heavy sound of the rain filled her head, mixed with the scratching of John’s pen scribbling on his book. 

Looking again at the shelf, she decided it was a good moment to put on some music to cover that annoying white noise and enjoy a bit more the housework. 

About to ask John what music he preferred, she looked at him and suddenly got hit by how old he seemed. It wasn’t the first time she saw him like that, sad and tired, and it always broke her heart. 

She loved the way he glowed up while playing with their grandkids, or whenever their children, now adults, came to visit them. But he decided she was the one allowed to see his true self, sad and tired, often grumpy and hard-tempered, broken for reasons she was allowed to know and no one else. Not easy to handle at all, but she kept handling him anyway, no matter how much it hurt. 

And now she was looking at his eyes, lost in some thoughts that went further than the grid of numbers in front of him. Maybe some memory brought back by the rain’s sound. 

Not sure if she should’ve interrupted that memory by putting some music on, but she was aware that memories were dangerous for him. May’ve dragged him into far, dark and cold places, widening his cracks. 

With time, she learned to understand good memories and bad memories by the way the corners of his mouth moved or by how his eyes wrinkled, no need to explain more. And that one was clearly a bad memory. 

She took a record from the shelf and slipped it out the sleeve caring to be seen by John, even with the corner of an eye, then she put it on the record player. It buzzed as usual and the soft, delicate music of a piano filled the room, mixing with the rain outside.

“V? What’s that?” He finally let his voice out.

“Slow Blues. Is it ok?" 

"Mh-mh” he nodded. He went back on his sudoku and Ronnie noticed this time he was actually doing it. 

And his leg slowly began moving with the music’s slow beats. 

And his fingers twitched following the double bass. 

And his head slowly bobbed with the piano’s melody. 

A little, proud smile appeared on Veronica’s lips. She cleared her throat and when he lifted his gaze from the book he saw her standing right in front of him. 

She reached out for his hand and he put aside his sudoku book, a bit confused. 

“What are you doing?" 

"Asking you for a dance, no?” She lifted an eyebrow and smiled at him.

“A… a dance?” He asked again.

“I’ve seen your leg bouncing with the music, you silly. You say no to a dance with your lady?” She tilted her head and took his hand.

He looked down, at his book, that shade of sadness coming back into his eyes, the sound of the rain filling his ears over the music. 

“N-no, Ronnie, I don’t really feel like dancing…” he muttered.

“I know you do, I’ve seen you moving at tempo.” She gently squeezed his hand.

“John, please.”

John shook his head and lifted the corners of his mouth in a defeated smile. Of course she’s seen it, she knows him way too well now. And anyway that was better than letting lose himself in the past.

“All right then-” he grunted as he raised from the sofa and straightened his old back.

“… I’ll dance with my lady, if she insists so much.” He took her hand and wrapped his other arm around her waist, and she did the same, resting her free arm on his.

They both began slowly swaying along with the music, moving a bit awkwardly in the living room. 

But John was still lost in his thoughts, glancing at the pouring rain outside, attracted by that old painful memory that kept calling him. 

So Veronica stood on her tiptoes for a moment and left a quick kiss on his cheek, that caught his attention all of a sudden. He looked down at her, confused and surprised, and saw her smiling softly. That smile that said ‘I’m here, and I’m here for you’, that smile that -even if he tried to deny it-always brought him back to her. 

And so his memory travelled back again, and they weren’t old and grey anymore, not in their living room anymore, not even parents yet, but two slim students who just found each other in a disco, slowly dancing in the crowd, surrounded by no ones, hopes and stupid fears in their hearts. And then again, dancing at parties, dancing surrounded by their kids or just the two of them, dancing slowly, dancing frantically…

He made her slowly spin, just to hold her closer with both arms, and the present reappeared all around them. 

Ronnie let out a chuckle and rested her head on his shoulder, as he kept swaying back and forth in tune with the song. 

“See? We can still dance sometimes, we’re not so bad.” She whispered. 

“We used to be the best on the dance floor.” He laughed and his eyes wrinkled as they always did, now just a bit more than in the past.

“You taught me well!” She poked the tip of his nose.

“Of course I did.” They looked at each other and both smiled, feeling a bit silly, but light-hearted. 

As the record went on they kept slow dancing in the living room, the sudoku book soon forgotten. And Veronica looked at John’s eyes and saw more memories in them.

Happy memories.


End file.
